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Monday, November 21, 2011

Run away from Indian Flag

Though Indians got their freedom on 15th
August 1947, Indian Flag is still not free.
It is chained with sanctity, incarcerated by tradition, guarded
zealously by peevish Indians whose only claim to greatness is their orthodoxy
and antiquity. Though Naveen Jindal
fought to set Indian Flag free, allowing ordinary Indians to raise the flag, it
still remains inaccessible to the common man.

After coming back from living abroad, it was my dream that one day I will keep
the Indian flag high and big at my workplace.
Hearing that a common man can now raise the flag even at nights, we
raised the Indian Flag on the 15th August and decided to keep it
aloft on a tall mast for all times to come, brimming with pride. That lasted just one day.

The next day the police swooped onto us and asked us to
remove it – they were not aware of the new flag code nor do they want to hear
it from us. When I checked the flag code
and recent updates, it says that if you intend to keep it up in the night, then
it should be ‘well-illuminated’.
Now, there enters the subjectivity – ‘well-illumination’. What does that mean? The police, which was
bent on denying this right to us, has an upper hand there. Since
he doesn’t want the flag up there, he does not agree that it is ‘well-illuminated’. Try arguing with the local police what ‘well-illumination’
means.

So, in effect, such stupid clauses deterred us from keeping it on the
mast. We removed it the next day and decided
not to tamper with such sanctified symbols ever again, because such acts only
allow the police from harassing us again.

Freedom
from silly prosecutions

Freedom also means freedom from frivolous prosecution
and stupid litigations. By giving one a
freedom, you are saying that you can have this right, free from
persecution, free from state intervention, free from fellow man’s weak
sensibilities and insecurities. You are
basically letting the man have his freedom without getting bothered incessantly
by the peevish Indians.

MF Husain was hounded by these peevish Indians using
archaic and antiquated laws which sought to protect the religion from the
common man’s criticism and caricature.
The entire fight for human rights, self-determination, democracy, is
founded on the principle to protect the common man from the onslaught of
powerful institutions like religion and state, and here we are reversing it all
in one go by inheriting the laws framed during colonial times.

Sania Mirza was hounded by
frivolous litigations when one photographer thought it was a cool idea to frame
the national flag in the foreground with Sania Mirza’s feet in the
background. Instead of rejecting such photographic
illusions, peevish Indians went overboard to protect that innocuous plastic
flag that was many meters away from the defiled feet of Sania Mirza.

Now, a local court has issued
non-bailable arrest warrant against Sushma Swaraj for dishonoring the national
flag. So what actually happened? Well, one little girl got dressed up as ‘Bharat
Matha’ and she held a small flag in her hand, but it was ‘upside down’. Oh My God! What a sin, what blasphemy? How dare this little girl hold Indian Flag
upside down? And how dare Sushma Swaraj
not notice it? Sushma Swaraj should have
reprimanded the girl for committing such a big crime. Definitely she should have corrected it right
away. Now, that she has not done what
she was supposed to do as Indian, she is issued non-bailable arrest warrant for
disrespecting the flag.

Sounds silly?
Not really.

Many Indians don’t find it silly. They are used to so many caste based rituals,
like washing right hand first and then left hand, or taking the prasad only with right hand, and so on,
that they think that the whole life is about rituals, doing the mundane and
completely irrelevant things in the exactly prescribed way, and if for some
reason, you don’t do it the right way, it is considered a sin. Would you go to hell if you eat prasad with left hand? ‘May be, you do. Why take a risk? But such habits should be shunned, and if
needed, a non-bailable arrest warrant should be issued against that person for
showing disrespect to our greatest Indian culture’.

Recently, someone filed a petition against Kapil Sibal
because he was seated next to a minister from Mozambique to sign an
agreement. So what’s wrong with
that? Well, there was a flag in front of
them where it was upside down. Just
because you failed to pay attention when you are next to a flag, you can be
prosecuted.

Take back
the flag

Why give the flag to us when you can prosecute us with such silly allegations. Instead,
please take the flag back; put it in a museum.
Keep it on a pedestal, or keep it chains, but please keep it away from
the reach of the mere mortals like us. Let’s
go back in time and pray to our flag, and call it mother, call it goddess, and
keep it away from all of us in dark sanctorum in the temples. We don’t want the National Flag in our lives
if we are to be constantly afraid of silly prosecutions and frivolous litigations.

Next time you see an Indian Flag at a ceremony, just
skip it. God knows which peevish Indian
is trying to capture a picture with you next to it and use it to prosecute you.
To be really free, Indians should shun
the Indian Flag completely and run away from it as soon as one appears on the
scene. Teach your kids not to hold the
national flag, not to go near them. The
way you warn the kids not to go near dangerous animals, prepare your kids for
the future – warn them from holding national flags or going near them.

Looks like no body taught you to respect the national flag. Ask the men in armed forces how their heart fills with pride at the colors ceremony every day. And you want to use it as a daily commodity. Wonder why such an apathy towards national pride when you spend so much to secure you fortune.

There can't be different rules for us and the MPs! K S Rao has the Indian flag flying at his house even at night (and I feel the light he has there is not sufficient, looks more like a red light to warn flying objects). Also, K S Rao's flag is wrong! It does not actually adhere to the basic code. You can see that the Ashoka Chakra part has been stitched onto what looks to me like a Congress flag. (I last saw this 1 week back, but it's been like this for a while - his residence is in the lane adjacent to GVK One)

more the so, when we see here in UAE, the way people celebrate the flag and the feeling it gives (though personally, i don't get any dose of kick from such display of a mere cloths). here, people use and consider it as their own treasure, and doesn't care a bit whether it is kept upside down, or waved, or drenched or stained..be it in whatever condition, for them, it is their flag..their symbol..their pride..

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